The town was named after United States attorney general Thomas Watt Gregory, a close friend of George W. Fulton. Gregory, a company town in its early years, gradually turned into a trading center with a bank, shops, general stores, and three cotton gins. It declined inthe 1920 when the company office was moved to Taft. Growth revived when Reynolds Metals built a plant at La Quinta in 1952. Gregory was incorporated in 1951, and N.A. East was elected the town's first mayor. In 1990 the population was 2,458.